SpaceX fails to land rocket on droneship for 4th consecutive time

byonJune 18, 2016

WASHINGTON, June 16 — US space firm SpaceX on Wednesday failed to achieve its fourth consecutive rocket landing on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean but succeeded in launching two commercial communications satellites into orbit.

The main objective of the mission was to deliver two commercial communications satellites to Geostationary Transfer Orbits (GTO), which was completed successfully.

The two satellites, EUTELSAT 117 West B and ABS-2A, are operated respectively by Eutelsat and ABS — two companies that provide global communications services to a variety of users.

The launch using SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket took place at 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.

In a press release, SpaceX noted before launch that sticking the landing will be difficult this time, since the Falcon 9 is taking the satellites to GTO, a very high orbit used to move a satellite into a geostationary orbit about 36,000 kilometers over the equator.

The California-based company has done so successfully three consecutive times since April.

All of these landing attempts are part of SpaceX's effort to produce a fully and rapidly reusable rocket, which it said will dramatically reduce the cost of space transport.

Traditionally, rockets are designed for a single use only, burning up or crashing into the ocean after liftoff. (PNA/Xinhua)